This was the first birthday cake I ever made for Doug. I was really trying to impress him so I needed a super good German chocolate cake recipe (at the time he had told me that was his favorite). One night before our shift at the Ritz, I verbalized this need and Jackie came to the rescue. I made the cake in the afternoon on the sly and hid it until I was ready to sing Happy Birthday little Douggie. That evening, I took him out to dinner (his first limo ride mind you) to Chez Cary. After that dinner, when we got home we were by no means ready for chocolate cake! So I sang my ditty to him and slipped it back into the fridge. The next day there was a small plate of crumbs on the nightstand next to the bed. I noticed he had had a piece of the cake, I asked him how it was and he had such a puzzled look on his face that I couldn’t believe it. He said “What Cake?” I showed him the crumbs and lo and behold, we discovered that it was indeed a case of the “Sleepwalking Midnight Refrigerator – Raider” who had struck again!    All that work and he didn’t even remember tasting one morsel! He’s lucky I didn’t give him the good old Musgrove One Two…

FOR CAKE:

• 1 pkg. German chocolate
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup Crisco
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 4 eggs, separated with whites beaten until stiff
• 2 cups flour, sifted
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 cup buttermilk

FOR ICING:

• 1 can Angle Flake Coconut
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 can evaporated milk
• 1 cup walnuts

FOR CAKE: Pour boiling water over chocolate and mix with fork until chocolate has melted. Cream sugar, crisco, salt and vanilla. Add yolks and beat 1 minute. Add soda to the sifted flour. Alternately, add flour mixture and buttermilk to cream mixture mixing well after each addition. Add chocolate-fold in stiff whites. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-35 minutes in three, 9-inch cake pans well greased and dusted with flour.

FOR ICING:

Mix the sugar and the milk in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally until thick, about 10 minutes or so. Add coconut and walnuts. Let cool and spread over cooled cake. Wait ’til real late at night and sing Happy Birthday!